‘Soca in good hands’ with Generation BRAVE

MUSIC producer/manager Anson Soverall believes TT’s newest crop of soca artistes form Generation BRAVE. By BRAVE, he means, Bold Revolutionary Artistes of the Vibesy Era.

BRAVE is a movement of “this era’s soca artistes bearing the responsibility to carry the art form further to a next level,” he said.

He believes that his generation and this project is confirmation that soca is in safe hands. “We are brave enough to take on the challenge and carry it (soca) forward and take it to new heights,” Soverall said.

The project, his idea, came about when Derek “Dawg E Slaughter” Pereira brought the Paramin Riddim to him. The riddim was done by some new producers called Prospect Entertainment.

“I heard it and felt like it had a lot of potential and a lot of vibes. I was always thinking of doing this project but I did not have the beat that could have carried it. When I heard the beat, I was like 'this has the vibes and energy that I could take and add my experience and my productions to go to a next level,'” he said.

Immediately, the artistes Nailah Blackman and Nesta “Sekon Sta” Boxill, whom he manages, and Erphaan Alves came to mind “for a particular reason.”

Each one of them, he said, was brave enough to go forward and do major events throughout the year.

“Erphaan having Grateful, Nailah doing Sokah Origins and Sekon Sta doing Sekon Sundays. And I felt like the energies coming off of those events were very positive... I felt like they would gel and have a chemistry that would just work well for this project.”

How Soverall managed to get them all together tells an interesting story. In the phone interview with Newsday he said he was in Arima and cancelled all of his studio sessions because they were all together shooting an ad for an event in Port of Spain around Queen's Royal College (QRC) grounds.

“We had a very quick meeting inside of Erphaan’s car where I presented the project and the plans for it and then I played the unfinished production for them and they were like ‘This is hard'."

Alves, he said, was a little bit hesitant as Soverall “came in the middle of his season.”

Soverall said Alves told him he liked the beat but had to get back to him by 6 am the next day. He asked him why 6 am and he told Soverall he is a spiritual guy and needs to figure it out.

He called Alves at 6 am the next day and he agreed to come on board.

Soverall has stamped 2019 as the BRAVE generation. The project’s conceptualisation began around December last year and “he was in a mind frame of what to do for this season that would put the icing on the cake.”

Soverall said every season he conceptualises Blackman’s projects. He said the first year; they did Sokah Origins then did the song Sokah which was a tribute to her grandfather, The Late Ras Shorty I and pannists. He said 2019 has been about Iron Love which is a tribute to the rhythm section in Carnival.

“But now I wanted to do something that showed that the youths or the now generation of soca artistes are ready to step into that big shoe and fill it,” he added.

Soverall said he had been toying with the idea in his head and he needed the right vehicle and artistes to propel the concept forward.

The BRAVE movement has manifested itself in a song done collaboratively between Blackman, Alves and Sekon Sta titled Brave. The song, which some commenters on YouTube have dubbed as "Road March potential", has amassed 66,866 views and over 3,000 likes up to 1.30 pm yesterday. It was launched on January 27 at Alpha rooftop on Ariapita Avenue.

But he also hopes the movement sparks and inspires other young artistes “to unite and be brave and do the unthinkable.”

“Do things that you may not necessarily have the courage to do or you are holding back on. You are second-guessing with respect to your music or your career,” he said.

Soverall said he always meets a lot of young artistes who ask him for advice or help but a lot of them “are afraid to try.”

He said to win, one has to try.

Soverall added that every year a BRAVE project will be done where something is done to help the now generation “be more successful and more inspired to do greater things.”

“We all know back in previous time and previous years there were little beefs between artistes and camps. We are trying to show that this generation, which is also a generation of love...we are trying to create a movement of unity where it is not just talk we are showing it with action.”

BRAVE will run throughout 2019. The trio, he added, will be on many stages throughout the year.

“This is the now generation. Generation Brave. We are the future of soca and it is in good hands,” he said.

Soverall said there are discussions between the trio to do more songs under the Generation BRAVE title.